Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Welcome Back Walk-Over

If you read any of the various clothing forums that dot the internet you've most likely ran into a post regarding Walk-Over shoes. They usually involve some dude stumbling upon a real crisp pair of bucks at his local thrift spot for around $5. He buys the bucks, obviously, and then goes home to Google the brand. The story usually ends with him staring at posts in those very same clothing forums inquiring about the shoes and their origins. Lots of older cats remember Walk-Over fondly and lament on the company's early to mid 1990's demise. If my facts are correct, Walk-Over's claim to fame was bringing the buck to America (inventing the buck?) and producing it for pretty much everyone. Regardless, Walk-Over's rich, albeit spotty, history firmly establishes their place in American made footwear history. Thanks to a licensing deal or a much needed infusion of capital, Walk-Over is back slinging bucks to the American public - red brick sole fever is officially an epidemic. If you pop on over to The Standard Edition you can peep a preview of the new/old line that was shown at both ENK New York and Compass. The first thing you may notice is the striking similarity to Mark McNairy's New Amsterdam line and that's because, well, Mark freelance designed Walk-Over's relaunch. I wasn't surprised when I heard this news and neither should you. If you were relaunching your red brick sole heritage shoe line and needed a designer, who better to turn to than the current king of the buck? Right? Anyway, the launch seems slated for S/S 2011 and as of now there is a severe lack of information available (i.e. pricepoints, brand philosophy, country of origin, availability, etc.). While the jury is still out on this one, lets take a second to welcome back Walk-Over.

Those do not look like the old Walk-overs. The old Walk-Overs had a much more subtle shape and toe. They were more refined bucks. Those look like McNairy "playing" with classics again. The saddle stitching is all wrong compared to the ones I had.

As I'm currently looking down at the white Walk-Over bucks on my feet I can tell you that the relaunch shape appears to be only slightly less sleek than the originals, yet the colors make them inherently more appealing. I would have to say that these are no more McNairy-esque than any other suede buck manufacturer. Most people seem to be saying that because McNairy is the only immediately recognizable shoe that more-often-than-not has a red brick sole.

LAS, nice work on catching this, looking forward to them releasing some more info.

My family sold Walk-Over shoes until they went bankrupt around 1992. They were always better made than their competition such as Bass, Eastland, and Dexter. Of the others mentioned the Dexter was next best due to the fact it retained a true Goodyear Welt while Bass & Eastland used cement construction (sole cemented directly to upper without welt and mid-sole).

There were idiosyncracies to the Walk-Over that, besides the fact it was the best quality, made it my perferred "buck". First it had a unique round toe shape that wasn't so broad it looked like a "plow-shoe", rather it was refined and could move from being worn with faded blue jeans to a pair of khakis and look equally suitable for dressing up the khakis further with a coat and tie. Appointments such as: 1.) brass eyelet grommets (Dexter used a one-piece stamped metal grommet that was invisible except from behind); 2.)genuine leather Goodyear Welt (Dexter used a vinyl welt); 3.) Glove leather quarter linings [heel to area behind laces] (Dexter used sueded leather heel with balance of quarter being a man-made lining material); and, finally...4.) real neoprene crepe (blown rubber, i.e. spongy resilliance) soles which had firmer density than just about everyone else's soles so they tended to last longer. All of these factors made the Walk-Over "dirty-buck" the best looking shoe of it's type I've ever seen. There have actually been a few superior quality bucks made over the years, Allen-Edmonds retired "Orleans" comes to mind, but never has anyone made a finer looking buck than the Walk-Over to my knowledge.

I haven't seen the new Walk-Over buck line in-person, but the fact that it is a true Goodyear Welt with mid-sole construction has immediately made me a fan. I doubt McNairiy even knows what a welt is and the fact that these shoes are made that way has more to do wiht the capability of the plant H.H. Brown is using to build these (there are shoe plants commonly referred to as a "welt-plant" as that is their specialty as per construction goes). I can see that McNairy did not use the original Walk-Over lasts as the toe is definitely looking broader in the picture. That would be on purpose, of course, as it is considered more fashionable than a narrower round toe in the current casual style trends. I think that it would be nice to offer one style in the dirty suede color that was a perfect copy of the original Walk-Over buck, but I'm tickled pink just to have this well built version as everyone else who is currently selling a buck (Bass & Eastland are back) has the inferior cement construction with no real welt. Even the last pair of J&M white bucks I purchased about 5 years ago had cement construction...J&M for crying out loud has really let quality slip!

I am currently trying to secure a pair of these dirty bucks. I just popped the lid of my last pair of Dexters about the first of this month (March 2011). I've been sitting on these for about 4-years as Dexter quit making these and, actually, quit making street shoes about 4 years ago. Dexter was canabalized by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Group, the name was sold to Payless Shoe with only the Dexter Bowling Shoe division remaining in Berkshire's control...But, I digress.

Just saw this (where have I been!) and I am pretty excited to hear that Walk Over is making a comeback. I had my one and only pair back in the nineties (just before they went away I guess) and wore those shoes everywhere, even riding my bike to work and they were great in my toe clipped pedals! Very durable and shock absorbent in the pedal (these were of course the brutal pot holed streets of L.A.!) I am sure the Goodyear welt construction was key in the duraability and comfort that I remember.

My Walk Overs were not the popular buck that everyone has these days and I do hope (Mark McNairy or no) that they open up what must have been a very cool catalog of shoe designs. My pair was a spiffy combination moc/split toe version in a very durable and mark resistant "dirty" suede with brick red soles. Damn cool, if I do say so myself, just wish I hadn't out grown them. I do remember that they were not cheap back then, but not over $200.00 expensive, more like in the $150.00'ish range...

I agree that the toe box looks much more rounded, but I remember wishing back then that the more pointed toe were designed to offer more wiggle room and accommodate wider feet. Regardless, they still looked fantastic and were more than comfortable enough to work in all day (did I mention I rode my bike to work in them?) and even with my wide feet in them they were still very sleek looking.

Here's hoping that the McNairy name is enough to get them launched and back on good footing so they can leave him behind to bring back some of the treasures that they have in their history on their own. I also hope they have learned from whatever troubles they might have experienced (I thought they were owned by Wolverine back in the 90's) and will be better for the time off.